TSA meets initial screening cargo goal

Congress has mandated through the 9/11 law that 50 percent of cargo on passenger carrying aircraft be screened by February 2009 and 100 percent of cargo be screened by August 2010; TSA says it currently screens all cargo on narrow body, passenger-carrying aircraft; these account for more than 90 percent of all passenger carrying aircraft in the United States

It is not everyday that a government agency beats a Congressional deadline, but we note that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) just has: Four full months before its first Congressional deadline, the TSAsays it is currently screening all cargo on narrow body, passenger carrying aircraft. Narrow bodies, like the Boeing 737s, Airbus A320s, and thousands of regional jets make up more than 90 percent of all passenger carrying aircraft in the United States.

Congress has mandated through the 9/11 law that 50 percent of cargo on passenger carrying aircraft be screened by February 2009 and 100 percent of cargo be screened by August 2010. The cargo on these aircraft is currently being screened by explosive detection systems, physical inspections, canines, and other methods. These are the same methods that will be used to screen cargo on other aircraft.

The agency says that other measures currently in place include screening all cargo at hundreds of small airports, screening cargo requested for specific flights or destinations, deploying more than 500 specially trained explosive detection canines to airports, allowing only verified shippers to place cargo on passenger carrying airplanes, and aggressively inspecting cargo operations with hundreds of inspectors.